Still Working Out Bugs in My First Year of Tax Resisting

Uh oh. I just got my W2 from my former employer in
the mail today. According to it, I made
about $5,000 more last year than I thought I did.

How did I screw up so badly? When I was trying to estimate how much I made at
my old company, I used the accounting on my last pay stub, which included
compensation for my last span at work and also for my accrued vacation time:

this period

year to date

Gross Pay

$5,794.96

$24,499.98**

I assumed that the $24,499.98 included the $5,794.96. Way down at
the bottom of the pay stub was this ambiguous note:

**YTD figures as of
the last payroll processing

Which, I now understand, means that the $24,499.98 was the total
before adding the $5,794.96 — which changes things quite a bit. Why
they chose to report things in this bizarre and misleading manner, I don’t
know. But the upshot is that I was relying on the wrong figure in doing my
calculations. Because I similarly underestimated my 401k and other deductions,
the actual difference between my estimate and reality is closer to $5,000.

$5,000 is enough to make a really big difference in my plan to eliminate my
federal income tax burden. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that
instead of getting 100% of my paid taxes back as a refund, it may be more like
75%–84%.

If I had known the accurate number back early enough in
2003 I could have adjusted (for instance by
spending $3,000 or so of that surplus on additional university classes). This,
and a hefty
IRA
contribution, would have been enough to keep me below the line.

As it is, I can still make the
IRA
contribution, but that isn’t going to be enough, and it’s too late to do
anything else that will make a difference to my
2003 numbers.

I’m of course embarrassed and very disappointed by this. For months now I’ve
been crowing about how I’m not going to pay any federal income tax for
2003, and now it looks like I have to eat that
crow. That, and vow to keep closer tabs on my income in
2004.

For more information on the topic or topics below (organized as “topic →
subtopic →
sub-subtopic”), click on any of the ♦ symbols to see other pages on this site that cover the topic. Or browse the site’s topic index at the “Outline” page.